Making a TV show is a terrible grind — especially back in the day, when shows were entirely made up of standalone episodes. So it's no wonder that so many classic shows reached for the same handful of plots, over and over. Here are 12 storylines you'll find in every old science fiction and fantasy show. »3/27/15 4:44pm Friday 4:44pm

We constantly get our hopes up for upcoming movies... and then they let us down. It's easy to get sucked into the hype cycle, as people talk up their projects — but sometimes, you can tell just from the way people talk about a film that it's probably not going to work. Here are eight key phrases that usually indicate… »3/26/15 5:00pm Thursday 5:00pm

Every villain always threatens to return and wreak vengeance. No baddie worth their salt ever gets beaten and then announces they're going to retire. But some villains make an especially big noise about how they'll be back... and then, crickets. Here are 10 villains who made a big splash, and were never seen again. »2/11/15 1:40pm 2/11/15 1:40pm

The original Star Trek was a revolutionary television show... that came to an ignominious end. The classic space opera saw a huge drop in quality in its final season, and then was cancelled. Legend has it the ratings were terrible, and the new producer, Fred Freiberger, ruined it. But the truth is a bit more… »2/05/15 7:42pm 2/05/15 7:42pm

Villains sure do like to be captured on purpose, don't they? We've seen it again and again as a trope, but it's not always a bad thing. Sometimes, it does show just how brilliant our bad guy is. And sometimes, it shows just how stupid our heroes are. Here are the best — and worst — times a villain got sent to the… »2/05/15 1:57pm 2/05/15 1:57pm

Science fiction and fantasy are full of great quotable phrases — but some are damn near irresistible. No matter how hard you struggle, these phrases worm their way into your consciousness. No matter how much you deny it, you let them back out. Here's a list of 10 phrases too good not to repeat.»2/03/15 3:55pm 2/03/15 3:55pm

It's one thing to build a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek with LEGO bricks. It's another to build it so that none of those signature LEGO studs show. It took builder extrodinaire Chris Melby eight months and around 18,000 pieces to make this five foot-long masterpiece a reality. »1/31/15 5:30pm 1/31/15 5:30pm

Being a Trekkie for many years, I'm used to the cyclical fictional debates of whether a Klingon Bird-of-Prey would handedly defeat a Romulan Warbird. Don't even get me started on Kirk versus Picard. But The Nerdist's "Because Science" YouTube segment asks an interesting question: if you teleport somewhere, are you… »1/19/15 5:30am 1/19/15 5:30am

Twenty years ago today, Star Trek: Voyager premiered. Of the five live-action Star Trek series, Voyager is not the best. If you were ranking them, Voyager and Enterprise would probably duke it out for last place. But none of that matters, because Star Trek: Voyager meant everything to me as a child.»1/16/15 7:20am 1/16/15 7:20am

Sometimes it seems like every villain is obsessed with murdering the hero of the story. (Or making the hero realize they're alike.) But it's not true — in fact, some of the best villains have their own goals, and the hero just happens to get in the way. Here are some great villains whose schemes don't revolve around… »12/16/14 4:50pm 12/16/14 4:50pm

Neill Cameron's perfectly titled "Parks and Trek" series reimagines the inhabitants of Pawnee as the crew of the Enterprise, circa The Next Generation. If this had been the real crew of the show, Commander Ron Swanson would have ensured that the show didn't have to grow the beard. »12/10/14 7:00am 12/10/14 7:00am

Fan theories can be wonderful and strange, but sometimes a fan will come up with an idea that's even better than the official story. Here are just some of the fan theories that actually make a lot of sense—and would actually improve the stories they come from. »12/09/14 1:19pm 12/09/14 1:19pm

No matter how much you already know about the original Star Trek, there's still undiscovered territory out there. And just like with season one, the new book series These Are The Voyages by Marc Cushman uncovers loads of surprising secrets. Here are a dozen things you probably never knew about Star Trek's second… »11/24/14 4:11pm 11/24/14 4:11pm

Some heroes bare their souls in the midst of their epic adventures. And some heroes just bare, well, everything. Science fiction and fantasy is full of hilariously weird moments of naked truth — and here are the 19 funniest nude scenes of all time. It's work-safe! »11/14/14 1:24pm 11/14/14 1:24pm

Science fiction and fantasy television has produced plenty of bizarre or terrible episodes. But sometimes, an episode isn't just bad, it's world-breaking — because it introduces plot holes or character traits that would kill a show. Here are 10 episodes that everybody had to pretend just didn't happen. (Two of which… »11/12/14 2:43pm 11/12/14 2:43pm